The College of Media at Illinois presents the 19th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, Wednesday through Sunday, April 19-23, 2017 – at the historic Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign, IL.

Festival Passes allow access to all 12 (or more) screenings during the five-day event held every April inside the Virginia Theatre as well as related talks and panel discussions held at the Hyatt Place in Champaign and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A limited quantity of 1,000 passes will be made available for this year’s festival.

Passes are $150.00 each, plus a $5.00 service charge (phone/online only). For the first time, a 15% discount is available to festival-goers when they purchase a four-pack, priced at $510.00. Additionally, a small number of U of I Student Passes will also be made available this year, priced at $100.00 each. (Please note that Student Passes are available at the Box Office only, with valid Student ID.)

Passes can be purchased at www.thevirginia.org, at the Virginia Theater Box Office (203 W. Park Ave., Champaign), or charge by phone at 217-356-9063.

Tickets for the festival’s individual movies will be available for purchase at 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, April 1, 2017. Individual Tickets are $15.00 for Adults and $13 for Students and Seniors.

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival celebrates films, genres, and formats that have been overlooked by distributors, audiences and/or critics. These include independent, international, and studio films that did not win wide audiences; overlooked formats such as 70mm; and overlooked genres such as documentaries and musical. The festival screens one film at a time, so everyone sees the same films at the same time, promoting a strong sense of community among audience members, filmmakers, guests, students, and scholars.

It was founded by Roger Ebert, an Urbana native, U of I journalism graduate, and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.

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The Virginia Theatre is an historic performing arts center and movie palace located in Champaign, Illinois. Owned and operated by the Champaign Park District, the Virginia has been providing entertainment to the community since 1921.